Nithin V, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru
INTRODUCTION
The Death Penalty is a practice, from the past and still using by various states, came into existence so the ruling people can execute the accused person for his/her alleged crime he has committed in the past in order to show that this kind of crime or conduct will lead to execution.
Some of the most serious problems that exist in our system of justice are associated with death penalty. The apex court of the country has also cleared in its verdicts that capital punishment is necessary for heinous offences. However this punishment remains controversial despite majority support from the Indian population.
The main and most important question about the death penalty is can execution of the accused by the state in response to the crime he/she has committed morally justifiable, even in the rarest of rare crime like Nirbhaya case?. The death penalty has been supported widely by distinguished philosophers such as Plato, Kant, Hegal, Schopenhaur, Kremer etc. Plato, Kant and Hegal, strictly supported a retributive theory of justice or punishment and concluded that the capital punishment was a duty. There is no one particular theory which the state follows to determine the appropriate punishment for a particular crime which has been committed by the accused. However, theories such as retributive and deterrent theories come in support of death penalty.
The retributive theory mainly focuses on the past. Deterrent theory is a product of utilitarian theory which focuses on the future. According to retributive theory death is a punishment that is given to one’s wrong conduct in the past saying that the person deserves death as a punishment. On the other hand utilitarian theory sees death penalty as a preventive measure through the incapacitation or deterrence.
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